LONDON: Russia said there was a risk of a manmade disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Kyiv and West of planning “provocation” there during a visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

A Ukrainian official dismissed what he depicted as a cynical assertion by Moscow and said Russian forces should leave plant they captured soon after invading Ukraine nearly six months ago, demine it and remove any munitions stored there. Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex (ZNPP), largest in Europe has come under repeated shelling, with both Moscow and Kyiv trading blame. Russia says Ukrainian forces are recklessly firing at plant, but Ukraine says Russia is deliberately using reactor complex as a base to launch attacks against its population. Russia’s foreign ministry said at a news briefing that a proposal from Guterres to demilitarise area around plant was “unacceptable.”

Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters Moscow was taking measures to ensure safety at complex and denied it had deployed heavy weapons in and around plant. Yevgeny Balitsky, head of Russian-installed administration in Zaporizhzhia region said earlier there was a risk that shelling could damage cooling system of reactor complex and was quoted as saying plant was operating with only one unit.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 19 2022

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